Stephen King turns 75 and we’re taking the date to check out some of the iconic productions and characters that bear his mark, from Carrie to Pennywise the clown
Fall arrives this week, supposedly, because when we look out the window we don’t understand why the outdoor pools are already closed. Moreover, it is the birthday of an extraordinarily prolific individual who composes lyrics whose personality has been transcended in his own work. The distinguished Stephen King (Portland, 1947), master of horror on paper, also transferred to the cinema -with more or less success-, looks great as an autumn idol, because his head does not stop creating and is active wherever it puts it. let’s write. On Twitter, he’s become a cached influencer, recommending series like “The Paper House” or the recent “The Devil in Ohio.” His remarkable musical taste is known, starting with the Ramones, who devoted a song, ‘Pet Sematary’, to one of his books that was made into a movie. The well-known punk rock group did not want to be buried in the animal cemetery “to live their lives again”. In the past, the “Who made who” was mythical, performed by AC/DC, a resounding song, with the DNA of the famous band, accompanying the images of ‘Maximun Overdrive’, or ‘The rebelion of the machines’, the only film directed by King himself (who deserves to be saved today, with the distance it has won in integers). With this metal soundtrack, we can imagine the author hard at work in front of the typewriter, now the computer, pressing the keys surrounded by beer cans. Once his heart was about to stop, but his hands and mind kept coming back to life, confirming his undeniable ability to create and create without stopping. “If I hadn’t written, I would have been drunk and drugged,” he often says. He was hit by a van that went off the road. Perhaps someone buried him in the famous animal cemetery and he has come back from the dead to continue inflicting terror on millions of readers around the world.
King’s extensive written body of work is one of the most respected genre writers and has inspired countless films and television series. There are countless adaptations of his books, which are not always welcomed. Some real-life versions hit video stores in the 1980s and 1990s. We discuss some of the iconic productions and characters that bear his mark, taking advantage of Stephen turning 75 among the living.
In working out the list of essential film titles based on King’s imagery, it makes sense to start this nourishing review with the compelling ‘Carrie’, Brian de Palma’s magnum opus whose later remake, more recent at the time, is out of order. was despite complying with the file. This cult classic crowned actress Sissy Spacek queen of the screams in the late 1970s, with her psychic powers and a manipulative mother who made her life impossible, one of the writer’s own obsessions, turned into multiple lyrics of his red crop. It was his first published novel, theoretically pulled out of the trash by his wife. The scene of the bucket of blood at the ball is cinema history, honored or filmed directly on many occasions.
The disturbing ‘The Shining’, conceived in 1980 by Stanley Kubrick himself, failed to convince the novelist, against all odds, given the career of the filmmaker. King later even sponsored a horrific television series that made the director’s famous film “2001: A Space Odyssey” even bigger. The film, whose dubbing in Spanish still gives us something to talk about, ushered in the avalanche of films in 1980, based on the books of the magician of horror literature. Jack Nicholson’s performance, wonderfully histrionic, delirious and disturbing, brandishing the ax, remains etched in the minds of millions of viewers. Nearly forty years later, under the direction of Mike Flanagan, came the sequel, “Doctor Sleep,” with Ewan McGregor leading the cast, and the novel, published in 2013, was turned into live-action. The British actor plays Danny Torrance, Jac’s son. Years have passed and the one who walked the corridors of the Overlook Hotel as a child on a tricycle is a tortured creature, with alcohol problems seeking his place. He must face his fears as he resurrects the ghosts of the past, using his psychic powers, the famous “glow”.
Thanks to ‘Cujo’ (Lewis Teague, 1983), no one has ever looked at their pet in the same way. The devil dog has left a mark in the collective memory. In the 1980s, productions based on the master’s books were reproduced by traces. Tires like ‘Christine’ (John Carpenter, 1983), the one with the murderous car; the poignant ‘The Dead Zone’ (David Cronenberg, 1983), starring the hypnotic Christopher Walken; the gory ‘The Corn Boy’ (Fritz Kiersch, 1984), whose premise has been copied more than once in the genre; the righteous ‘Blue Fear’ (Daniel Attias, 1985) and ‘The Eyes of the Cat’ (Lewis Teague, 1985); or the ‘Creepshow’ comic (George A. Romero, 1982), in which King stars in one of his segments and plays a local who turns into a plant after touching a meteorite in the field; These are some proposals that have become popular in such an idealized time.
‘Pet Sematary’ is one of King’s most chilling works. The 1989 adaptation, directed by Mary Lambert, with a script by King herself, has aged well and has some cult scenes among fans of fan-tarror. The 2019 version also tries to disturb the darkroom viewer without deviating from the formula that dazzles the youth audience of today, the main target of another contemporary horror proposal with a result that is chewed up and plagued by fears typical of a witch train. It is inevitably placed below its predecessor. There are sensitive changes in the history of the mysterious place where what you bury dead comes back to life, but there are no shortage of nods to the film of yesteryear. The atmosphere is the best of all.
The twisted ‘Misery’, directed by the findable Rob Reiner, opened the ’90s ban on versions and lifted a perfidious Kathy Bates. The well-known actress embodied a stalker, as she would now be defined, who transcends boundaries in her love for a successful writer. Previously, it was the same director who put himself behind the camera in ‘Count on me’, in 1986, without whose existence the ‘Stranger Things’ phenomenon might never have found its way to travel, like the new adaptation of ‘Item ‘. It’s one of those titles that emotionally marked a generation, along with “The Goonies” or “Back to the Future.” Frank Darabont is probably the filmmaker who has best understood King’s source material when it comes to transferring to the image, there are the sensational ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ and the equally commendable ‘The Green Mile’ and ‘The Fog’.
The recent adaptation of ‘It’, one of King’s most widely read books, divided into two elongated films with clear connections to the ‘Stranger Things’ phenomenon, an obvious debtor to the work of the King of Terror, has the sinister clown Pennywise, turned into a modern horror icon. In its day it was already a television miniseries, also released as a film in domestic format in 1990, with the unspeakable Tim Curry under the make-up of the murderous clown. The recent real-life version, starring actor Bill Skarsgård as the psychopathic jester, was intended to be more perverted, with clear references to 80s popular culture, and continued in an entertaining sample of youth horror film whose soundtrack drew attention. from nostalgic music lovers: New Kids on the Block, The Cure, Anthrax…
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
